Iran - Andrew Burke [36]
BAHA’ISM
The most persecuted religious minority in Iran, Baha’is suffered greatly after the revolution. Today, it remains illegal to practise the religion in public and Baha’is are routinely discriminated against when it comes to jobs and education. Of the world’s five million Baha’is, around 300,000 remain in Iran – they form the country’s largest religious minority. Most Baha’is are urban, but there are some Baha’i villages, especially in Fars and Mazandaran provinces.
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The website www.bahai.org is a comprehensive site for and about the Baha’i religion and community.
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Baha’ism originated in Iran during the 1840s as a Shia Islamic reform movement. Iran’s political and religious authorities were not impressed and tried to suppress the movement, massacring followers and executing the founding prophet The Bab in Tabriz in 1850. Hostility to Baha’ism has remained intense ever since. Baha’i doctrines are strictly egalitarian, teaching the complete equality of men and women and the unity of all humanity. The headquarters of the Baha’i are in Haifa, Israel.
MANDAEISM
An ancient gnostic religion, the exact origin of Mandaeism is unknown. Because they speak a form of Aramaic, some credence is given to the Mandaeans’ claim that they are descended from followers of John the Baptist; others believe they may be descended from the Essene sect. They practise weekly baptisms as a sacrament, and claim to follow the teachings of John the Baptist. They are considered by Muslims to be ‘People of the Book’ and identified as the Sabeans of Quranic legend. The small community of around 10,000 is centred on the Shatt al Arab in Khuzestan.
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The sites www.mandaeanworld.com and www.iranmanda.com are good sites for those interested in finding out more about Mandaeism.
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WOMEN IN IRAN
When Samira Makhmalbaf’s first film The Apple (1998) made waves in the West, people were confused. How could Iran – the land of female oppression and Sharia law – produce an 18-year-old female film-maker of such vision? Samira Makhmalbaf’s answer was simple: ‘Iran is a country where these two contrasts coexist’.
Nowhere are the contradictions in Iranian society more apparent than in the position of women. Historically, women in Iran have lived in a progressive society and enjoyed more equality and freedom than their neighbours. In Iran women are able to sit in parliament, to drive, to vote, to buy property and to work.
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The One Million Signatures Campaign, headed by well-known women activists such as Shirin Ebadi, aims to educate Iranian women in their rights under the law as well as collecting signatures demanding equal rights.
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There is a long precedence for this. In pre-Islamic Iran, archaeological evidence suggests that ordinary women were able to work, own, sell and lease property and that they paid taxes. Women managers were mentioned at work sites and women were also known to have held high level military positions. By the Sassanian period, though, women’s rights were not formally enshrined.
The Prophet Mohammed was the first to specifically address women’s rights, recognising men and women as having different (rather than unequal) rights and responsibilities. Men are expected to provide financially, therefore women are not seen as needing legal rights as men are there to protect and maintain them.
In reality, for Iranian women, the arrival of Islam after the Arab conquest saw a decline in their position at every level. Most of their rights evaporated, the Islamic dress code was imposed, polygamy was practised and family laws were exclusively to the advantage of the male.
Reza Shah started legislating for women when in 1931 the Majlis approved a bill that gave women the right to seek divorce. The marriage age was raised to 15 for girls. In 1936, a system of education was formed for boys and girls equally and in the same year, controversial legislation was passed to abolish the veil, a move that polarised opinion among women. Reza Shah